The Leadership Conference Joins Boycott against Arizona Anti-Immigrant Law
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights joined the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and other organizations around the country today to announce a boycott of the state of Arizona in protest of the state’s anti-immigrant law, S.B. 1070.
The participating organizations have pledged to hold no conventions, conferences, special events, or major meetings involving significant travel to Arizona while S.B. 1070 is in effect. The Leadership Conference has also pledged to urge its more than 200 member organizations to do the same.
Groups participating in the boycott include the Asian American Justice Center, the Center for Community Change, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the National Puerto Rican Coalition, Service Employees International Union, and the United Food and Commercial Workers, and many others.
The groups said that the decision to organize a boycott was not “taken lightly.” However, Janet Murguía, president and CEO of NCLR, said that the “extraordinary law,” which will have such an adverse effect on Arizona’s people of color, “requires an extraordinary response.”
Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference, said the way that the U.S. handles immigration reform “is a moral issue… an issue about fundamental American values.”
“Americans agree that our immigration system is broken and in need of urgent repair. We share the frustration of many that federal legislation is essential,” said Henderson. “But the answer is not the Arizona law. The solution to our problem is for Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform. Republicans and Democrats alike have mutual responsibility to resolve this issue before the elections [this year].”
Signed by Governor Jan Brewer on April 23, S.B. 1070 will make racial profiling the norm in Arizona by requiring law enforcement officers to stop, question, detain, and arrest anyone that they have a “reasonable suspicion” to believe is undocumented. The law has been widely denounced as extreme, unconstitutional, and fundamentally unfair and discriminatory.
- For more information on the boycott, visit NCLR’s site.
- For more information on comprehensive immigration reform, visit our immigration section.